Friday, November 03, 2006

a greatly missional week

It’s been a great week for me.
- Community family film night last Friday, and the joy of offering hospitality to numbers of young people in our surrounding community, while helping them think Christianly about film
- Spring clean day on Saturday and the joy of practically serving as a church community and in partnership with other community groups, in cleaning our surrounding community
- Light party on Tuesday and having 60 kids – mixing of church, children’s ministry and community kids – dressing up in non-scarey costumes, eating sausages, scavenger hunting, thinking about the Christian echoes around Halloween.
- I am have been working on a missional project for about 6 weeks, something that I think has huge potential to influence our culture/s. I can’t say what it is at the moment, but it has been such a joy to work HARD with a few new friends, and to test the project with various groups over the week and to see connectivity.
- I have been exploring the place of spirituality in our culture by offering a spiritual journalling course. Over this week 18 people have signed up and the local cafe has said yes. So something that was a dream a month ago is a goer.

Most weeks for me feel a bit of a grind, with little to show for it. So it’s important for me to name the above. As I reflect on the joy within me, I am reminded again of what makes my heart sing. In God’s good humour, I am wired with a dimension of creativity that just loves offering spirituality outside church walls.

I need to name this joy, and nurture this part of my identity. It is too easy for me, in a growing church and with significant teaching responsibilities, to get locked into administration, planning and detail, and to run the risk of neglecting what gives me deep, deep joy.